1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to devices, systems, and methods for accelerating a mass along a spiral or arcuate gyrating path that accelerates and launches the mass.
2. Background of the Related Art
The following patents listing the present inventor discuss mass accelerators, the entire contents of each of which are incorporated herein by reference: U.S. Pat. No. 5,699,779, that issued on Dec. 23, 1997, titled Method of and Apparatus for Moving a Mass; U.S. Pat. No. 5,950,608, that issued on Sep. 14, 1999, titled Method of and Apparatus for Moving a Mass; U.S. Pat. No. 6,014,964, that issued on Jan. 18, 2000, titled Method and Apparatus for Moving a Mass in a Spiral Track; U.S. Pat. No. 6,712,055, that issued on Mar. 30, 2004, titled Spiral Mass Launcher; U.S. Pat. No. 7,032,584, that issued on Apr. 25, 2006, titled Spiral Mass Launcher.
A mechanical mass accelerator, also referred to as a “mass accelerator” in the related art, operates in a manner that is conceptually and mechanically similar to the ancient weapon known as a sling. Unlike the weapon of antiquity, however, modern mass accelerators are capable of accelerating projectiles to velocities of many km/sec (i.e., “hypervelocities”).
To accelerate a mass or projectile as it moves along a curved path or track, such a device moves the track itself along the direction of the centripetal force acting on the mass at any given moment. This is akin to the movement a Jai Alai racquet makes when the player uses it to hurl the ball at speeds in excess of 300 km/h. The moving mechanical mass accelerator track performs work on the projectile along a curved path to cause its acceleration. Repeating this process many times and doing so in phase, creates a cumulative acceleration that leads to hypervelocities. The curved path or track of the mechanical mass accelerator may be, for example, a tube, track, or other path and may be configured as a multi-turn ring, a spiral or helix. Even more complex paths can also be employed and may be advantageous for certain applications.
In order to cause the motion of the entire rigid track of a mechanical mass accelerator, the entire track can be mounted on a series of distributed mechanical swing-arms that propel the tube around a circle or other arcuate path of relatively small radius without changing the geometry or orientation of the track. The mechanical mass accelerator track gyrates but does not spin. The acceleration is similar to rolling a ball bearing around in a circular frying pan in a horizontal plane (or sliding an ice cube around in an ice-cold pan) and gyrating the pan around in a small circle, except that mechanical mass accelerator gyration speeds are orders of magnitude greater and the mechanical mass accelerator track geometry can be more complicated than the circular track created by the edge of the pan.
While earlier mass launchers were serviceable, they were often too inefficient to be useful, required complicated parts that were not easily machined or replaced, lacked efficient means for projectile storage as well as projectile release, and included aspects with a lower structural stability and exhibited a relatively high degree of frictional dissipation. In adapting mass accelerators for specific applications, there remains an unmet need for devices, systems, and methods for mass acceleration that are easy to fabricate, increase efficiency, simplify the projectile release function, decrease accelerating track wear and allow the launching of projectiles with large masses to very high velocities by practice of aspects of the present invention.